Myers: Clintons would want Weiner out

7/28/13 11:32 AM EDT

If Bill and Hillary Clinton could choose, Anthony Weiner would drop out of the New York mayor’s race, former Clinton White House press secretary Dee Dee Myers said on Sunday.

Speaking on CBS’ “Face the Nation,” Myers said the recent revelations Weiner continued sending women illicit messages online is “very painful” for the Clintons since they are so close to his wife, top Hillary Clinton aide Huma Abedin.

“Look, this isn't a story that anybody, particularly the Clintons, are happy to see splashed over the front pages and all over the news relentlessly, and I think they as much as anyone would like to see this go away,” said Myers, who was White House press secretary for the first two years of Clinton’s presidency. “If they could choose they would certainly have Weiner get out of the race and Huma to get on with their life. It's very painful for the Clintons. They are genuinely very close to Huma.”

Although many have been drawing parallels between Abedin’s decision to stay by her husband’s side and Hillary Clinton’s experience with sex scandals that rocked the Clinton White House, Myers said they are not comparable.

“It's not a comparable situation in a lot of ways to what I think Hillary Clinton went through,” she said.

Myers said Weiner’s campaign is not going to go anywhere and that he “played voters for fools.”

“He may still be in the race, but his campaign is over. Obviously, it’s not going to go anywhere,” Myers said. “Voters, we found out, are willing to forgive people as long as long as the person is genuinely sorry and tries to change. Anthony Weiner's played voters for fools.”

From the start, Myers said, Weiner was not qualified to be mayor of New York City.

“Anthony Weiner wasn't particularly qualified to be mayor. He has never run anything bigger than a 16-person congressional office, and he didn't do that very well,” Myers said. “He's a rhetorician and not a manager and a big city like New York requires really strong management skills as we saw in the current and previous mayor.”